


In Five Years Time,

by evengayerpanic



Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Universe, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Future Fic, Kid Fic, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:14:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26377093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evengayerpanic/pseuds/evengayerpanic
Summary: Jesse Joel Williams is seven years old to the day that he decides to visit the Lady Who Lives Outside of Town, an Urban Legend to the kids of Jackson, an Urban Legend that feels just a little too familiar for the young boy.
Relationships: Dina & Ellie (The Last of Us), Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Comments: 28
Kudos: 276





	1. The Lady Who Lives Outside of Town

**Author's Note:**

> **Trigger Warning: Mentions of PTSD, and Parental Abandonment.**
> 
> I'm not much of a dabbler, but I was watching some The Last of Us II gameplay walkthroughs and this plot bunny came to me, I likely won't write much for this pairing, but I figured that you all might enjoy my take on the ending to TLOU2. I warn you for spoilers ahead, a lot of spoilers ahead. The entire ending of the game is spoiled, guys.

Jesse Joel Williams is seven years old to the day when he goes to visit the Lady Who Lives Outside of Town. 

It starts as any normal day. Mama wakes him up at five in the morning to give him his daily hugs and kisses before she goes out on Patrol, her usual comment of “In case I can’t come back for them,” leaving him uneasy, though he knows why she says it.

Then Granny makes him a big breakfast while Pop-Pop jokes about a feast befitting a Prince. The two of them spoil him just a little bit extra today, though if he’s honest, he’s already spoiled plenty by them… He looks just like his Daddy, so he’s been told over again.

When clock strikes ten, Granny’s off to work mending clothes and sewing scraps together, anything to stretch out what little material they have to work with. Pop-Pop walks with him to the centre of town, where all the other kids of Jackson like to hang out, before the old man bustles off to his own job.

“Heard it’s your birthday, JJ.” Peter, one of oldest boys says, jumping down from the play structure Maria insisted on having built, something about wanting to ‘keep the kids occupied’. Peter walks over to JJ, fluffing up the little boy’s hair in a playful tease before continuing. “We got you a present for it, well sorta.”

“What is it?” Jesse Joel looks between the boys who are now all circling around him and Peter. 

He recognizes most of them, Peter and David being the oldest, thirteen and twelve respectively, the boys are barely a year away from being asked to join the patrols. Until then, they rule the Kids of Jackson.

Next up are the twins, Elijah and Edgar. They’re ten years old and can be kind of pranksters, all the adults of Jackson are used to chasing them away from homes and workplaces, not trusting them to behave. There’s also Benji, one of JJ’s best friends, he’s ten as well, but he doesn’t look down on JJ for being so little.

Last of all is a kid that Jesse Joel has seen before, but never really gotten to know, he thinks his name is Lukas, and he wants to trust him, but he’s still unsure.

Jesse is the youngest by far, other than a couple of toddlers, but the babies are cared for specifically by the older girls. Jesse is too old now to need to be babysat, and so, even though he’s a little reluctant, his ears still perk up at the thought of finally being allowed into the big kids group.

“We’re going to take you to The Lady’s house.” 

Jesse Joel gasps softly, The Lady Who Lives Outside of Town, otherwise known simply as The Lady, is kind of like an Urban Legend to all of the Kids of Jackson. 

She’s been there for years, five and a half specifically, cooped up in a little wooden house just outside of the perimeter walls. She never comes to town, hasn’t stepped foot inside of the gates in five years. She keeps to herself other than when troubles afoot. A group of Infected stumbles upon town? The Lady is the first in the fight, dispatching as many as she can before the guard can help. Raiders? Bandits? Murderers? They have to go through The Lady first. 

Every single child in Jackson has heard their parents talk in hushed whispers about her, most children have caught glimpses of her house from the gates. 

Jesse Joel has been obsessed with her ever since he caught a glimpse of her from Pop-Pop’s watchtower. She looked up at the tower, met eyes with Jesse Joel and JJ’s Mama immediately shooed them down from the tower, tears falling from her face so fast he never had a chance to ask why she was crying so hard.

“How are we getting out of town?” JJ asked cautiously, glancing between Peter, David and the matching looks of mischief written across their faces.

Peter explains. “We found a hole in the fence just big enough for us all to squeeze through, it’s totally rad.”

_________________

The house up close was both, nothing and everything, of how Jesse Joel had expected it to be.

It was dilapidated, wood planks broken and splintered. It was overgrown, large bushes covered windows and small vines wove through cracks. It was eerily silent, you could lose the sound of nature just by being near the house. A chill ran through the air.

JJ was in the front, held up in the air by Peter as he tried to get the boy high enough to see inside of the windows. “Do you see anything, JJ?” He hissed, annoyance taking over him the longer he held him.

“I still can’t see!” JJ called out.

“Uhh… Peter.” Elijah whispered.

“Not now, Eli!” Peter snapped, hoisting JJ up even further. “What about now, JJ, can you see her now?”

“Not yet!” The enthusiastic little boy called out.

“Peter!” Edgar and Benji join in this time, their voices full of fear and worry. “Peter, you have to listen-”

“I said not now!” Peter yells at them. “JJ, can you-”

“It’s her!” David screams, cutting Peter off mid-word, grabbing his friend’s shoulder and pointing to The Lady descending her front steps towards them.

The next few seconds go by in a haze to Jesse Joel. He’s dropped out of Peter’s arms right onto his bum, landing with a hard thud. Before he can even look up to tell them off, the group of six have began screaming and running away, not bothering to look back to see if Jesse Joel’s following after them.

He stays seated on the ground though, even as The Lady comes closer and closer until she’s hovering over him with a stare. “Aren’t you going to run?”

Her words take Jesse Joel by surprise, not what she’s said but how she has said it. It’s almost as if the idea of him running away from her has made her sad.

“I’m not afraid of you.” He answers defiantly, though the way she stares at him is making him a little uncomfortable. “My name is Jesse Joel Williams and I’m not scared of anything, except for the monsters.”

“I know who you are.” The Lady whispers before stepping towards him. She’s hesitant, like she thinks he’ll flinch or run, but he stays still watching her.

She reaches a hand down for him. When he takes it in return, it’s her time to flinch a little. He supposes it’s been a while since she’s touched someone else’s hand. He grips tightly to it, using her to help him up, before staring expectantly.

“Would you like to come in?” She finally asks, the bright beam of the boy’s smile carving away a little of her rough exterior and she masks her own smile.

“Yes, please!” Jesse Joel follows her to the stairs, walking silently until they’re secure inside her home.

The Lady brings the boy to the kitchen table, where they sit facing each other in silence for a little while.

If Jesse Joel and the other boys thought the outside of her home was unkempt, the inside is only worse. It’s small and simple. Everything is all in one room. A bed, the kitchen, a guitar and some pictures. Her entire life in one small room, with only a door off to the side for a bathroom, or so JJ imagines.

“So, you’re afraid of the Infected, and only the Infected?” She questions him, her eyes softening only slightly to take him in. What he looks like, the features she sees that are compromised of her bestfriend and the woman she loved. He doesn’t know, but her heart skips a beat every time he speaks.

“Well yeah, the monsters are scary.” He says seriously.

She pauses. “People are scarier, JJ.” Before he can ask how she knows his name, she’s getting up and moving to the kitchen, pulling a plate down from the almost bare cupboards and fixing him something to eat. “The men that you’re named after, they weren’t killed by Infecteds, they were killed by people.”

Jesse Joel blinks, he can see the pain in The Lady’s eyes, and he wants to help her, but he’s only seven, and try as he might, he can’t quite piece it together.

“Your Daddy, Jesse… Your… J…” She can’t say it.

“My Grandpa Joel.” He offers for her instead.

Her faces falls, and she slowly begins to shake, her eyes are wild and darting all over the place. She’s trembling as she whispers. “Your Grandpa Joel…” 

The seven year old is out of his seat instantly, moving to her and wrapping himself around her arm. She blinks back tears, croaks out a tiny, “Get off of me.” But then she’s crying and holding him, and he’s clinging to her tightly and whispering soft words of encouragement, trying to pull her out of it.

“It’s okay. You are okay. You are safe, you are home and I’m here.” He whispers all of the things that his Mother whispers to him after a nightmare, and holds The Lady tightly to him until the shaking stops.

She finally looks up at him, the frown on her face fading slightly as she leans against him for support.

“What about the Williams part?” Jesse Joel whispers finally, staring at her. “You weren’t killed by people.”

Ellie looks up at him, heart pounding in her chest of how is it that he knows who she is, that he figured it out that quickly. She always knew her little Potato was smart, but she’s been hiding from them for five and a half years. Ever since she tried to come back and Dina wouldn’t let her walk back into their lives.

“A soul can die too, JJ.”


	2. Part Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Trigger Warning: Mentions of Child Abandonment, Depictions of Violence and Non-Graphic Description of Hand Torture.**
> 
> This story is definitely not meant to make Dina out to be the bad guy, at the end of the day, Ellie left her and J.J. knowing that she wouldn't stick around to wait, and as you'll find out in chapters to come, Ellie messed up again even afterwards. I promise this angst has a happy ending though! It'll just take a bit to get to it, so don't hate me too much! Overall though, I'm glad that you are enjoying this fanfiction!

“JJ…” Ellie pauses. “Do you know who I am?” She already knows the answer, but figures that it is easier to let him explain how he knows who she is. She doesn’t want to push him, he’s still just a baby to her.

He nods his head softly as she places the plate in front of him, he sees strawberries, grapes and a cut up apple. The smile stretches from ear to ear as he digs in. “I didn’t at first, I couldn’t see your face.”

She smiles at him, hesitantly, as he begins to try some of the strawberries she’s spent the past two summers trying to perfect. He looks so much like Dina that it shakes Ellie to her core. When he was born, she was sure he was going to look like Jesse, but it’s his eyes and his smile. He is all Dina.

“When you started crying, I saw you.” He explains, his mouth full of grapes moments later. He chews for a minute, seemingly remembering his manners, and then swallows. “I have a picture of you in my room.”

And then he freezes her blood cold with his next words. “You’re Ellie Williams. You’re my Mommy.”

Her mouth goes dry and she has to fight back a sob. She wants to question being his Mommy, but the only thing that dares to escape her lips is a broken whisper of. “You have a picture of me in your room?”

Jesse Joel nods, taking a piece of apple and offering it over to her. She takes it silently, watching him. “It’s a picture of you and Mama. She’s pregnant with me. You have your hands on her belly and you’re smiling.”

She can almost remember that day. They had found a baby boutique in Dina’s last trimester. Ellie had filled her backpack up probably a dozen times, trying to grab all the diapers, clothes and toys they would need. Her last trip back for the pieces to a crib, she had found a photography set-up for the babies. 

There had been cameras, and so with a small amount of room left, she had grabbed an old Polaroid camera and some film. That had been their way to document the last month of Dina’s pregnancy, and then JJ first few months before Ellie had gotten art supplies.

They still kept every picture.

“Every night when I say my prayers, Mama makes me hold the picture to my heart and pray for you too.”

Ellie can’t speak, the thought of Dina, even in her justified anger, not erasing her identity to the little boy but encouraging him to think of her like that? Her heart aches like someone has stabbed it repeatedly.

Jesse Joel reaches out for her hand, the softest reassurances in his voice and Ellie is surprised that a seven year old has that amount of emotional understanding. She sure didn’t at his age.

The little boy sees right through her tough facade and continues, “Mama prays for you too,” he admits to Ellie. “Sometimes when I haven’t fallen asleep yet, I listen to her in her room, she prays for you to come home safe.” He pauses again, unsure if he’s supposed to say the last part or if it’ll make Ellie sad again. “She cries too, and curses you out. She always says she wasn’t supposed to be doing this alone, without you.”

At this Ellie hangs her head in shame, a sad look coming over her face so quickly that Jesse Joel reaches across the table once more for her. This time she lets him take it, hearing the little gasp as he notices her missing fingers. A physical reminder of what sacrifice revenge took from her.

Jesse Joel is the biggest reminder though, revenge cost her what she loved most in the world, her family.

“It’s okay.” She reassures him as he splays her hand out, his fingers gently examining the bumps where hers used to be. “I’ve made my mistakes, Potato.”

He doesn’t flinch at the nickname, his voice is soft and determined instead. “I can help you with stuff, when your hand hurts. I know how to pick fruits and vegetables, Mama has tomatoes in our backyard.”

She’s warmed by the idea of him coming back to see her, but also knows the likeliness of that happening.

“Your Mama is probably worried sick about you.” Ellie chastises, knowing as she looks at JJ’s guilty face that he also just considered that point. She may be at work, but his friends running back screaming would definitely call attention to his disappearance.

As he nods his head slowly, she stands from the table and moves to him. His plate is empty, the fruit devoured by the hungry boy. “Let’s get you home.”

_________________

The walk back to the gates of Jackson is so much longer than it needs to be, it’s less than a ten minute walk, but walking with Jesse Joel takes an hour.

He’s full of questions, and if this is going to be the last time Ellie is allowed to see him, she wants to answer all of them for the little boy. Her son deserves that.

“How did you meet my Mama? Was it love already?”

She tells him tales of her, Dina and Jesse. An unlikely trio. She talks about their first kiss, and their second kiss (leaving out the part about the weed). She tells him how Dina always saved her ass. She tries not to be embarrassed when she talks about finding out Dina was pregnant, and her horrid reaction.

“Did you want to be a Mommy when I came along?”

Ellie gushes about how nervous she was, how scared she was of having a baby around, but that she took one look at him and loved him with her entire heart. He holds her hand, her permanently injured one, delicately as they walk together side by side.

Jesse Joel talks about his life in Jackson, how he lives with his Mama, Granny and Pop-Pop. He talks about the boys that ran away earlier, and says things about them that make Ellie nearly snort in laughter. 

“Why do you not want to be in our family anymore? You never came back. Did we do something bad?”

Ellie drops to her knees immediately, they’re right outside of town but she can’t go any further without addressing it. She grabs him by the shoulders and pulls him into her arms and commands him to listen with a scratchy voice and tears threatening to fall.

“You were never bad, you could never be bad.” She shakes his arms just slightly, determined to drive the point home. “You and your Mama are the two best people that could ever exist in this world, do you understand me, it’s me… I’m the bad one, okay?”

JJ touches Ellie’s face gently, running his finger over scars and tear stains, her lips tight. “Couldn’t you try to be good? That way you can come home.”

He has an innocence about him that devastates Ellie. She’s about to open her mouth and promise him that she will do whatever he wants her too, when they hear a scream of JJ’s name and running towards them.

Ellie barely has time to look up before she sees Dina, throwing herself through the gates and sprinting to them. She can see the terror on the woman’s face, and she instinctively but hesitantly lets go of Jesse Joel as his Mother reaches him and pulls him into her arms desperately, clinging to the little boy.

It’s a chaos filled minute; Dina yelling at Jesse Joel about how much trouble he’s in, and how he knows better than to leave the safety of the gates. JJ is desperately defending himself, trying to tell her that the older boys told him that it was okay.

They both stop talking for a moment when Dina fully takes in the sight of Ellie, her face growing stony and her eyes glistening over. “You…” She whispers.

Ellie immediately feels under fire, lifting her hands into the air, eyes pleading with Dina. She had no part of this. “I didn’t hurt him, Dina, I swear to god.” She begs, not knowing if after five and a half years she even has any right to be near either of them.


	3. Part Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Trigger Warning: Mentions of Abandonment, PTSD and Anxiety.**
> 
> This chapter dives a little bit into why Dina acts the way she does around Ellie, and how Ellie hurt her by leaving. I hope you all enjoy the subtle hints into how Dina really feels, and that the ending of this story is one that you approve of!

“Ellie…” Dina whispers and it breaks Ellie’s resolve into a million pieces. This is why she doesn’t come to town, seeing Dina and knowing she broke her heart, it’s far too much for what little is left of Ellie’s fragile mental state to handle. It’s too overwhelming for her.

All the brunette can do is nod her head, her eyes turned down to the ground almost in shame. What right does she have to be here? “I’m sorry, Dina.”

Dina holds up her hand to stop Ellie before she can say anything else, the brunette hangs her head and watches as Dina’s eyes harden as they flicker between her and the little boy that went to search her out.

Jesse Joel is completely oblivious to the anguish going through both his Mama and his Mommy, the way their eyes keep failing to meet and the tremble that seems to go through both of them. He has no clue what has just been brought back to the table after years of a permanently closed discussion.

“It wasn’t his fault.” Ellie speaks again, after giving Dina the chance to and the older woman refusing to.

Dina’s head sharply turns from Ellie to JJ and back to Ellie again, an eyebrow raising as she hears her girl - former girlfriend - stand up for the child.

“Don’t be mad at him, those older boys brought him to my house and then they just… left him behind.” Ellie tries not to tremble in rage as the finality of it all sinks into her. Jesse Joel had been safe because it had be her house and her that snuck up on the boys. If it had been someone else, or god forbid an infected? 

Her little boy wouldn’t have stood a chance.

“Don’t tell me how to raise my son.” Dina says coolly, her voice harsh and demanding as she refuses to budge even a little bit towards her Ellie.

The moment she had seen the two of them holding hands, talking to each other, an ache had started in her heart and it still chipped away at her. How dare Ellie come back in and make her feel like that? Especially with JJ. Ellie knows how much Dina used to crumble seeing them together, Ellie knows that the two of them are Dina’s weakness, Ellie knows -

“Our son.” Ellie has the gall to whisper, though she looks like she wishes she could take it back immediately. Ellie knows that she took it all too far.

Dina spins on her heel, moving quickly to look Ellie dead in the eye. Face to face, eye to eye, anger flowing over top of her with only one outlet.

“Don’t you dare…” Dina warns her threateningly. “You made your choice Ellie, now you have to live with it.”

“I made a mistake.” Ellie whispers, finally looking Dina in the eyes, able to see the tears that gather in them. “I should have never left him… or you, Dina.”

The next few moments go by and it feels like the longest moment of Ellie Williams’ entire life. 

Dina turns away from Ellie and towards Jesse Joel, her demand short and simple. He is to get back inside the gates, and go find his Granny. She doesn’t want him around right now and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Dina doesn’t want him to hear whatever she’s about to yell at Ellie. The firm look on the girl’s face isn’t surprising, Ellie knows Dina is about to go off and she thinks to herself that at least she has the decency to not let JJ hear what’s being argued between them.

What is surprising, to both Ellie and Dina, is the way that the newly seven year old child squares his feet and stays firmly in place. He shakes his head forcefully, and as his Mother stares him down, he dares to yell at her. “No, I just met her, I’m not leaving Mommy Ellie! I want more time with her!”

Dina is taken just as aback as Ellie is.

“It’s okay, JJ.” Ellie whispers, unable to read the expression on Dina’s face as she continues to stare.

He shakes his head less forcefully this time, his tears spilling over and falling down his cheeks. “I don’t want me and Mama to lose you again. It makes Mama cry.”

Dina goes red as she’s sold down the river by her own son, but it’s not in anger, it’s in embarrassment. 

“Fine.” She whispers, glancing between her crying son and the look of devastation on the woman who left her behind all those years ago. “But we are going to go inside where it’s safe, is that a deal?”

Her question is more directed at Ellie. It’s been five and a half years since the woman entered Jackson. If she wants to apologize, she’ll have to start by facing the demons she created last time she was home.

“Deal.” Ellie says solemnly, but only for a second, the frown on her face replaced with the lightest of smiles as Jesse Joel skips back to her and takes her injured hand again. Dina notices neither of them flinch.

_________________

No sooner do they get inside of Dina’s little home, than JJ takes the lead, pulling Ellie every which way to show her all of his things. “These are my toys, and those are my books, and these are my drawings, and do you want to see my room?!” He’s a bundle of energy that Ellie can hardly keep up with.

All of the energy was taken out of her the moment she saw Dina, and she’s been running off of emotions since. She wants to be excited, but she’s exhausted.

“JJ, go do your homework.” Dina warns the little boy, and this time he thankfully listens, though he does fix both his Mama and Ellie a look before he disappears into his bedroom to do the school work he should have been working on at the park.

“You’ll still be here when I come back, right?”

Ellie bows her head. She is not sure. Jesse Joel seems to take it though, and he runs over quickly to wrap his arms around her shoulders. He squeezes her tightly before he turns back to his bedroom.

The moment he’s out of ear shot, Dina’s voice cuts the air like a knife. “What did you tell him, Ellie?”

“Nothing.” She breathes out shakily.

“Bullsh-” Dina is cut off by Ellie’s stare, her eyes are big and hurt, like every word that Dina has said is slowly killing her. Dina wants to dive that knife in more… to make Ellie feel everything that she’s felt over the past nearly six years. That dull pain.

But she can’t.

“He already knew, Dina.” Ellie explains, voice raspy.

Dina moves to the fridge, grabs the water jug and pours Ellie a glass. As she hands it to her, she can’t help but hold onto it a little too long, a shuddering breath escaping as one of Ellie’s uninjured fingers, brushes against hers with the softest of touches.

“He came to my house, and he saw my face, and he knew who I was…” She continues, taking a sip of the water slowly. “He said that you told him about me.”

Dina nods her head.

“Why, Dina, after all I did?”

“Because you are his mother.” The answer is short, and simple. It needs no further explanation but still, Dina does. “You’ve been his Mother since you first held him and cut the cord. Fuck… You were his Mother even before that.” The voice that was harsh and low and angry is slowly replaced with something… 

Something very different.

“You would kiss my stomach, and hold it close to you, and whisper in the middle of the night when you thought I was asleep. It’s your voice that calmed him the first three months of life, not mine.”

Ellie can’t tell that there is a tear rolling down her cheek until Dina reaches across the table to catch it.

“He used to look at me, and gurgle, and smile at me because I was his Mama… I made his milk, and fed him. He needed me to survive, and so he smiled.” 

Ellie feels the catch in her breath as Dina takes her hand across the table and studies it, finger running over every bump and vein, like she’s examining it in it’s entirety to make sure that it’s all real.

“He used to look at you and smile Ellie because you were his Mommy and he knew you.” She pauses, voice strained from trying not to cry. “I knew you too.”

“You still do.” Ellie whispers, linking her uninjured fingers around Dina’s own, holding her hand the best she can. “I’m sorry I left you both, Dina, I won’t… I won’t do that ever again. I was stupid.”

In those few words, Dina sobers up, taking her hand back from Ellie and brushing the tears from her own eyes as she stares her down. “I can’t trust you, Ellie.”

Ellie nods her head. That was their problem last time she came back. She had rode into town, went to Dina and apologized for all that happened. She had promised not to leave again, and Dina had told her that she couldn’t trust her. Heartbroken, Ellie had done the exact thing she promise she wouldn’t do… She had left again, for the outskirts of town. Give Dina some space until she could trust her again.

Some space had turned into months, and then years.

Ellie Williams knew now that giving Dina space was where she had messed up, she had proven that Dina couldn’t trust her. She had no intention of doing that again. “Then I’ll be right here waiting until you do.”

Dina stared at her for a moment, before a small whisper escaped her lips. “You can stay until he goes to bed. He’ll be cross if I let you leave before then.”

Ellie nodded. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

_________________

After Jesse Joel went to bed, his arms having needed to be pried away from Ellie so that he could go to sleep, the boy crying the entire time, Dina had turned around to find Ellie nowhere in the house.

Instead of sighing or cursing Ellie out, instinctively Dina knew to find the other woman sitting on the porch, eyes closed and body trembling violently.

“He’s fine, Ellie, I swear.” She sat beside her, reaching a hand out to hold Ellie’s as they shook still. “I had to promise him that you’d still be here tomorrow.”

Ellie opened an eye cautiously to look at Dina.

“Don’t make me a liar, Ellie, especially not to our son.” Dina spoke dryly, more to the open air than the woman planted beside her. Ellie heard her anyways.

“I can stay?” Ellie sounded hopeful.

Dina nodded her head, a loud sigh escaping her thin frame as she set her conditions down. “For the night. The couch is pretty comfortable for a night’s rest.”

Ellie smiled softly, turning to Dina with gratitude on her lips, before the woman’s next words caught her off guard and put a swell of hope in her stomach.

The first swell of hope she had in six years.

“If you’re still here by the weekend, we can talk about moving you to a more comfortable bed.” Dina smirked a little, a softness once again in her eyes.

“Yes, Ma’am.”


	4. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, we have hit the end of this story! I decided to publish this story on AO3, exactly how it was first written and published on Tumblr... However, with all of the really good response to it, it seems like everyone wants more, and that's given me a bit of muse to continue it, with maybe a story depicting how Ellie and Dina got back together after the events of this story, and following them from the Part Three all the way to the Epilogue! With all of my stories, they will be written on my Tumblr first, and then moved to AO3 afterwards, so if you'd like to follow it from the start, my Tumblr is the exact same as my AO3 account, EvenGayerPanic. Thank you all for reading and enjoying!

Jesse Joel Williams is twelve years old to the day when he tells his little sister Anna Talia Williams all about the Lady Who Lived Outside Of Town.

She’s only four years old, far too little to hear tales of the infected and death and what happened to her namesakes… but JJ is her very favourite storyteller (even more than Mommy), and he always knows where to stop his stories before they go too far.

It’s in the middle of the night when she comes to find him; Mommy is on a scavenging hunt with Tommy, and Mama is not-quite surprisingly still patrolling the walls. He knows that when Mommy’s out, Mama refuses to go to sleep until they’re reunited safely.

That leaves him alone with the two girls, after Granny and Pop-Pop retire to their small home next door, and normally he hardly notices. His grandparents make sure Anna is fast asleep before they leave, and Baby Sarah hardly makes a fuss other than waking up every few hours for a bottle of milk or for a little reassurance that someone is still there with her.

He supposes that even for a baby, being the sole survivor of your camp having been ravaged by Infected leaves a lasting impact or fear of loneliness.

It’s a routine he knows though, it’s one he can follow in his sleep… and most of the time, he does. Just watch after the girls until the Mom’s are back, keep them safe in case anything should happen.

His father’s gun sits on the top shelf of his bookcase for just the occasion. High enough up that Anna can’t get a hold of it, but in the open enough to be grabbed and used in an emergency if need be. 

He’s been gun-trained since he was ten, when Anna was brought home and his Mama had drilled into him the real importance of protecting your sister.

At first Granny was worried about his training in guns, but Jesse Joel has just the right amount of patience and discipline to handle such a big responsibility. He knows when to focus, and isn’t easily jarred into making a rash decision. He knows how to evaluate.

When Anna comes to wake him, he isn’t phased. He’s used to his little sister jumping on him or shaking him awake, so when a small hand pokes his face, all he does is crack an eye open and grumble. “Wussrong?”

“I had a bad dream.” A tiny voice replies. He opens his arms wordlessly so his sister can dive into them.

She does just that and settles against her big brother, curled up against his side. He can feel her tremble in his arms and he knows that it was a really bad one. Anna is infamous for her ‘bad dreams’… most of the time they’re an excuse so she can snuggle with someone. Rarely though, she’ll have a real one, a reminder of the horrors she saw in the two years before Ellie found her and they gave her a family.

This time was obviously a real nightmare.

“Do you want to talk about it?” JJ finds his voice through the grog of sleep, his baby sister the one thing that can wake him. He’s fiercely protective.

The little girl shakes her head, but then relents with a whisper of. “People were screaming, the monsters were loud… Daddy made me hide so I wouldn’t see.”

JJ feels his heart break. Sometimes he misses never knowing his own Dad, but then sometimes he realizes he’s lucky not to have ever known him… At least he doesn’t have to grow up like Anna, passing day by day with her Father’s face slowly fading from her memory. He has pictures of his Dad. She doesn’t.

“Tell me a story, JJ, please?” She begs him.

He can’t refuse her, especially not right now.

“Have I told you about the Lady Who Lived Outside of Town?” He asks, a smile comes over his face as her eyes light up at the prospect of a ‘new story’. 

She shakes her head, her stuffed dog pulling in closer to her face as she listens to JJ as he starts his story.

“No? Well, I better start from the beginning… Once upon a time, there was a Mommy, a Mama and a little tiny baby named JJ who lived on a beautiful farm.”

_________________

He tells her everything, though edits it in a really kid-friendly way. His version has their Mommy going on an adventure and not being able to find their home again. It has the tiny baby JJ growing into a big boy, finding Mommy and bringing her home. It has Mama and Mommy reuniting, then finding another baby.

He leaves out the part where Ellie comes back home right away, and is far too scared to fight to prove to Dina and JJ that she’s worth another chance, only to leave again (even though she didn’t really leave) and sit outside of town for another five years, always watching out for them but never finding her brave.

He leaves out the part that once he did find her and bring her back home, Ellie and Dina still needed time to heal from five and a half years of hurt before they could even try once more to be a family again.

He leaves out the fighting, the screaming and the crying. Or how even six months down the line, he’d sometimes find Ellie on the couch instead of in bed with his Mama. How she’d have night terrors, and sometimes Dina couldn’t even bring her out of them. 

He leaves out the time, a year in, when Ellie took him hunting and he got hurt and he had to drag her back home. That he had to stop her from leaving again.

Anna doesn’t need to know all that.

She’s four years old, and all she needs to know is that her Mama and Mommy love her, her sister and her big brother more than anything. He tells her as much.

Anna listens to him attentively, staring at him like Jesse Joel is the only storyteller in her world, at first his story is way too exciting to fall asleep too.

So he continues talking, and then he gets her some water. Then halfway through his story, he has to go to her room to collect a few more of her teddy bears.

A little bit after that, Sarah starts fussing and Jesse Joel has to pause the story to go get her and bring the baby back to his room for a bottle and cuddles.

By the time he’s reaching the end of his story, Anna has gone through every excuse in the book to stay up a little longer and is finally beginning to nod off, curled up in the crook of his arm, snug as a bug.

Baby Sarah is in his other arm, the one year old’s hands curled up in his shirt, head resting on his chest.

Jesse Joel is exhausted as well, a night time emergency avoiding without guns or fighting, just big brother to the rescue. Normally he would try to move them both back to their beds, but he can’t open his eyes, much less move off of the bed at all.

_________________

By the time Ellie returns from patrol with Tommy, and she returns home with Dina, it’s late enough in the morning that they expect JJ to be up and making himself some breakfast, if not one or two of the girls to be up with him as well. Their kids are early risers.

Surprised that none were awake, Ellie is checking in on the girls when a panic catches up to her as she sees that her daughter’s beds are both empty.

It’s been almost a year since her last panic attack, but Ellie slips right back into it, her mind going wild with what ifs as she tries to reminder herself that Abby is long gone. They are tit for tat, agreed to stay away from each other, their feud is done and over with.

But still, she fears for the idea that it’s not.

She’s brought back to with the soft whisper of Dina calling for her, and she follows down the hallway until she’s brought in front of JJ’s open bedroom door.

Relief floods Ellie as she spots their girls snuggled up with the not-quite teenage boy. He is everything she ever thought he would be and just so much more.

Dina meets Ellie’s eye and wraps her arm around her, leaning against the other woman, her heart beaming with pride. “They’re lucky to have each other.”

Ellie nods. “I’m lucky to have them.” She pauses for a moment, kissing Dina’s cheek gently. “And you.”

Dina blushes bright red, stepping out of the room and bringing Ellie with her by the hand down the hall. “We’re lucky to have you.” She admits, pushing the brunette towards their bedroom door. “Now let’s get to bed, before the potatoes wake up for the day.”

Ellie laughs for a moment before fixing Dina with a smile, her eyes bright and bold compared to the hollow ones that left her over a decade ago. 

“Thanks for not giving up on me.”

“Thank JJ for not letting me give up.”

“I love you, Dina Williams.”

“I love you too, Ellie Williams.”


End file.
